Inferius
by BaconBits1
Summary: Ian moore and Meghe Reeter are best friends. When Ian decides to cost Meghe in Atlanta, Georgia, all he wants is a peaceful summer. However things go awry when the dead begin to rise. Meeting with a group that's taken base in a quarry while they were searching for a member left behind might have bigger consequences then any of them thought.
1. Chapter 1

"I'm overreacting" I pause, because really I'm not sure "right?" I ask, because I need confirmation and comfort that I am, indeed, overreacting.

"You are…" she starts slow and I take this as a good sign that she's taking this seriously, because I hardly ever see this side of her and she must be thinking of the best way to calm me down. "Definitely, probably, maybe overreacting." she says.

I glower at her, because that's not what I wanted at all, but it's half hearted at best, and fake at worst because seeing her joke around like she does everyday, like nothing's wrong, reassures me."I'm serious Meghe," I say, and I am but somehow her not making a big deal out of this makes me seem ridiculous "My grandma ALWAYS picks up, and the fact that she hasn't ALL week means somethings wrong"

She smiles reassuringly at me, but its not reassuring me at all because I know its fake. "Relax Ian, " she says, as we wait by a crosswalk. "Your making a big deal out of nothing." and of course she's right because she always is but I can't help worry about the only family I have left. "There could be a million reasons why she hasn't picked up. Like maybe she went on vacation, or maybe she got a date, or perhaps she got into some terrible accident and can't respond."

I glare at her for real this time, as the crosswalk signals for us to cross. She laughs at my expression and I can tell my glare wasn't as intimidating as I thought "Dude, stop worrying about what you can't change. Your living with ME this summer, and I don't want to hang around with some goddam slug all vacation." she says as we make our way across the street.

My expression immediately changes from anger to worry "I know, but I have fifteen more years of experience with my grandmother than you, and something like this has never happened before." I finish, she looks indignant for a second before replying "you have ten more years of experience you cretin" I roll my eyes, but don't reply because it's true, she has known me for years after all.

Something on my expression must show how anxious I still am because she grabs me by the shoulder and stops me in the middle of the street and says "hey" in a real soft voice that is so unlike her it makes me double take. She looked me straight in the eyes, blue against brown, I think she may do something profound like tell me how she thinks I'm overthinking things, and how the one who practically raised me is fine and how I should enjoy summer break. But really I should know better than that because all she does is flick me on the nose and laugh like a physio.

Really there should be a more appropriate time for this but she decides that in the middle of a crosswalk, during rush hour, in the biggest city in the state, while talking about health concerns of my grandma is the best time to do this.

Speaking of rush hour there's some car just blasted through the red light of the opposite street, heading right towards meghe but she doesn't see because she laughing and saying stupid things to me and holyshit_meghesaboutto__**die**_

But no because I grab her exposed arms and _pull_ her away just as the car speeds by, and thank god instincts because there's no way rational thought did that. Before I can help myself I blurt "_fuckinghell_ you almost **died**" her expression melts from one of shock to one of anger and before I can stop her, and before the culprit can get to far away she yells "what the _fuck!_" her expression makes the nearby people who were watching, shrink away and avoid looking at her, and for a second I'm impressed and a little jealous that her glare is so terrifying "What the hell is _wrong_ with this goddam death trap of a city" I can't help but agree with her, but I think she should stop because I think there might be something medically wrong with the driver.

By now the car has slowed down significantly but it shows no sign of stopping. Well, _did _show no sign of stopping. It crashed into streetlight a little ways away from us and has indeed, stopped. "Sorry" Meghe says as she breathes a huge sigh. Relief? Frustration? Who knows. "usually walking down the street in atlanta doesn't end in almost death" I snort, more out of hysteria than anything "let's hope" was my terse reply

We continued to her mom's apartment in some amount of shock. Thankfully the rest of the way is uneventful if not a little long, walking from the train station in the middle of town to the outskirts takes awhile but we pass the time in comfortable silence

When we make it to her apartment, the sun is already going down. The building itself is smaller than the others but the 3 story building is still taller than any of the ones in my grandmas rural town. It's made of classic red brick, some of the corner bricks are chipped or missing, and the windows look kind of grimy but otherwise intact."Well, here we are. Shithole sweet shithole." I look at her because really it isn't so bad. Not so nice either but I guess that's life. The building is just above the street where some kind of construction is going, right next to a large alley with a fence at the end, and right in front of a railroad which has to cut the cost of living here.

The inside is better, but not by much. We have to walk down this ill illuminated murder hallway and climb up a stairwell that looks perfect for man slaughter. The apartment itself is much better, cream colored wallpaper and a half wall that separates the kitchen from the living room. The carpet is much the same color of the walls and really the only really colorful thing in the whole view is an atrocious vomit green couch that makes you want to do just that, vomit.

Meghe flops down on the couch, shamelessly taking up most of it. I take up what little space is left and ask what she wants to do. She grins and leans down to the floor, reaching under the couch. Moments later she pulls out two Xbox 360 controllers and says "COD?" I eyed her a little, a challenge is it? Well so be it.

I lean back on the couch 360 controller in hand and best friend at my side and hope for a peaceful summer.

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Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood.

George S. Patton

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**okay some things. This is my first fanfiction and I Do want to make it better so I would appreciate some constructive criticism as well as your opinion as long as its not something entirely offensive because really I don't care if your overly rude. Anyway this is a spur of the moment thing that I do plan on continuing.**


	2. Chapter 2

"What's going on" I ask as a tank rolls down the street. It's a bit hard to see through the dirty windows but a tank is a tank even if you can only see it's silhouette, and that is definitely a tank.

"Fuck if I know" she replies

Honestly what was I expecting. The person who can't even remember her street name doesn't know what the hell is going on. I sigh a long dejected sigh that's only slightly exaggerated.

She snorts and continues " I mean I'm not certain, but…" she pauses presumably collecting her thoughts but who even knows " I **think..**"she says putting emphasize on the word 'think' "that's a first" I reply quickly before she can continue. She ignores me. Typical.

"That there's this disease going around making people go crazy, so there making this a safe spot" she finishes and I'm left wondering how I haven't heard this before.

"What?" I say before I can stop myself. Really it's a stupid question, but its absurd. The only known disease like that is rabies and we have a cure for that. Well, I don't really know if its the only disease that does that but I don't have extensive knowledge on all diseases.

"Idiot" she says. Rude. But True.

"I _mean_, it sounds crazy like what is it Ophiocordyceps?" I reply with a not so stupid question I can't help but feel proud about.

She looks at me funny and my pride gives way to embarrassment. Right 'Normal' people don't know what it is.

"It's a fungus that basically takes over the neural system of the host, but it's only in ants." I mumble before she can ask what the hell im talking about. She stares at me for a good long time before she finally says something.

"Nerd" she says in the same matter-of-fact voice she used to call me an idiot. Again, true.

"Well whatever" she says to break the semi-awkward silences that had befallen us. "Just stay out of the government's way is my motto"

"How?" I ask "I mean, if this is basically a quarantine zone then the stores will get shut down and we'll rely on them for food." I elaborate quickly, hoping for an answer.

She doesn't give one, instead she smiles sweetly at me and, I know from years of experience, it isn't sweet at all. She swivels on her heel, into the kitchen that isn't even 3 meters long, and opens the ceiling to floor cupboard.

Inside is the biggest stash of snacks I have ever seen. Oreos, twizzlers, gushers, pop-tarts, you name it, she has it. At the bottom is an unopened box which reads "M.R.E." in bold printed letters.

"How did you even get all this?" I ask, astonished.

She grins at me. An evil grin, I can't help but think. Suddenly I don't want to know, so I grinned back at her. The same teeth baring evil grin she has.

She grabs the pack of oreos while I grab a pop tart out of the previously unopened box.

"we are going to get so fat" I say. She bobs her head while she eats an Oreo and I take a bite out of my pop tart.

Maybe my summer plan isn't ruined after all.

"What is that?" I ask disgusted. It walks down the street with what must have been an arm at some point but now it's hardly recognizable underneath the dry blood and bite wounds. It wears a sharp suit and tie, well _was_ probably a suit, but it's torn to shreds now. It's like a horror movie you know you can't handle but can't turn away at the same time.

Meghe rolls her eyes at me. I'm not looking at her but I can still tell she has.

"Seriously, every time something weird happens you come to me like _I _know what's going on." she responds. I can practically _feel_ the annoyance coming off in waves.

"Well what do you _think_ it is?" I say ignoring the small part of me that wants to defend myself

"_Me_?" she asks sarcastically pulling her hands to her chest, "Why would you want _my_ opinion" she says flipping her hair back with one hand while the other stays directly above her chest. I scowl at her. Something I've been doing a lot of recently.

She seems to have got the message because she puts her hand to her chin in a thinking-pose esque manner."hmmmm" she says like she doesn't already have an answer because I _know_ she does.

"Zombies" she says like she just solved world hunger as she moves her hands to her hips

"You mean from...cod? The video game." I say slowly and carefully because I don't want to trigger her fanboy mode about cod "Yep" she chirps "cod 2 actually"

Too late

She goes on a long rant, one that I've heard before saying things like 'The best game ever' and 'literally a masterpiece'. I allow my thoughts to wander as I tune her out.

What do I think they look like?

Well they _do _Look like zombies but that's not very creative so what else do they look like. The media just calls them the 'infected' which is even less creative. Plus the 'The Last of Us' already calls them that. Which is another thing. On the news it always shows these things in packs so why is this one alone?

Thoughts for another time.

But no. There's another thing from pop culture that they resemble. I think it's from harry potter but what is it? Ahgg. Its killing me. Something about a goblet? Goblet of fire? No that's a movie. Um. Ummm. Ah! that's it there called

'Inferi'

"Hmm" Meghe hums "inferi, what's that"

I flush pink, because I hadn't meant to say that out loud, and frankly I'm surprised she heard that over her own ranting. I can't just tell her I was thinking about obscure harry potter facts without being beaten because I wasn't listening.

Besides its super embarrassing

But luckily I have a backup plan."it's the Latin word for below or under" I say suppressing a cocky smirk. I got curious one day and decided to look up translations for harry potter spells. It was a vey slow day and once I had looked up the translation to one spell the rest I had to know.

"Okay, but why did you say it" I don't reply. I have the feeling that she's repressing a smirk as well."C'mon there's no way you just know random words of a dead language." she pushes

Ten minutes pass before I finally cave. A new record.

"Its from Harry Potter" she waits for me to elaborate "corpses revived by a Dark wizard" she grins that evil grin again and I know she found a new thing to tease me about.

"It's just that we need something to call them and zombies seem to cliché and infected is too plain" I tack on before she can start the teasing

She gains a more thoughtful expression but it still looks evil. She goes over to the window again, to stare at the shambling corpse that's now about 200 feet down the road. Her grin grows evil again as she whips around to face me.

"Let's call them walkers" she says in the same high and mighty voice she used to say 'zombies'

Stupid

"That is literally the most uncreative name I have ever heard." I say slightly arrogantly. She looks offended.

Why?

"Well, they can't run they only walk so… Walkers" she says. This time it's her turn to turn pink.

I snort only feeling slightly guilty about making her embarrassed. "Well, they bite so lets call them biters. Honestly, if all things were named by you, we would be big-brain-two-legger."

Her face heats up more and she says "fine, we'll call em 'inferi' you goddamn nerd" she hisses semi loudly and storms off, muttering about 'nerds' and 'idiots'.

It takes me a while to realize I've won the argument.

Nice.

**okay some stuff. Sorry it took so long to update the new school year was crazy and it had me really busy. Anyway this is part 2 and I'm not a Walking Dead Master so if the time frame is a little off please forgive me. For example I made The Last of Us reference as well as a Harry Potter reference and I have no idea if they were released in the same year as as when Walking Dead is taking place PS I'll probably still use those pop culture references even if the time frame is off.**


	3. Chapter 3

What is that?" I asked. I regretted it a second later.

"Oh. My. GOD." says meghe, who is currently sprawled on the couch eating from a package Oreos on the floor. "I'm not omnipotent IAN." she spits my name out like venom.

I winced at her harsh tone, and muttered a small apology. I asked her that question almost anytime anything strange happens. These days, it's quite often. A car alarm, a scream, gunshots, more, an explosion, silence. She's gotten pretty sick of it.

This time it's a constant hum that's been going on for 2 minutes. It keeps getting louder. If I didn't know better, I would say it was a plane, but no plane is that loud, or flus that low. perhaps I could see what it is through the window.

Following up on my plan, I get up off my spot on the floor, wincing at the feeling of my bones popping and muscles stretching. We both agreed that sleeping in the same room is safer, and since I'm the guest, I get the floor and she gets the couch.

Moving towards the window is pitch blackness. It isn't surprising, the power went out earlier that week and we've been sick from boredom. What Is surprising is the series of flashing lights in the sky moving towards Atlanta. I guess it is a plane, but why is it comi-

My internal monologue was cut short by the massive explosion that rocked the foundation of the building. From a few blocks away an orange light flows over the tops of the buildings illuminating the city in a tangerine glow. Small pops, that sound suspiciously like gunshots, follow after the explosion.

It takes a second to realize what's going on. There bombing the city, the inferi must have overwhelmed the outposts. There's surely more to follow.

"MEGHE" I screech at the now alert best-friend.

"GET DOWN" I yell as I practically fall to the floor. From the corner of my eyes I can see Meghe roll off the couch, and put her hands over her head, essentially mirroring my own position.

A few seconds pass before the second explosion comes, much closer than before. The building sways minutely, the windows rattle from the deafening sound as expensive decorations fall from there place on the shelves making a sickening crunch, and undoubtedly sending thousands of tiny glass shards all over the carpeted floor. An Amber coloured fire flows past the windows illuminating the room for the first time that evening. Thankfully that's all the fire does, unable to set aflame the exterior of the building.

A few moments tick by before the explosions stop, all that's left is the few buildings that caught fire and the sound of gunshots to remind me of the explosions.

"Shit" Meghe says breathlessly very accurately describing our situation.

**Sorry for the short chapter more will be coming soon. In the next one they'll probably meet up with Rick's group kicking off the story. **


	4. Chapter 4

I stared wide eyed at the empty cupboard. Well, the almost empty cupboard. There were two MREs sitting in the otherwise vacant box, and maybe a snack bag of cheez-its scattered about, but that wasn't enough. We needed more food.

Why did I let it come to this. I usually have better foresight, but I guess I overestimated the amount of food. In the cupboard alone we easily had enough for a month, added to it were the other, shorter, cupboards, which held a variety of healthier foods. Healthier compared to junk food, so not very. Canned goods and such, that we really should have saved for when the perishable food ran out. Granted even trashy teens get sick of junk food. Not like canned food is much better, and we couldn't even heat it up after the power went out, so some nights we enjoyed cold ravioli as we watched the world burn.

God the apocalypse has made me a poet.

But I'm getting off topic. Food.

How did we even eat so much. We should have coasted through the first two months easily, but only one and a half months after the bombing and we got at most, two days worth of food. You'd think the apocalypse would help me lose weight, but if anything I gained it. I cringe internally thinking back to that whole pack of Oreos I ate the first day. How did I do that? I blame Meghe, she's a bad influence.

Shutting the cupboard door I turn out off the kitchen to go look for Meghe. Unsurprisingly she's on the floor being a lazy ass, while reading 'the book thief'.

"Meghe" I say audibly but not loudly, don't want to catch unwanted attention after all.

She turned her head. Hazy eyes staring into my worried ones. Not worried about her, she never needs it, but on our food situation.

"We need more food. We're almost out." I say quietly.

She puts her book down and sits up, groaning, to show I have her attention.

"I-i" I stutter. I don't want to be the one to say it. It could lead to our deaths, but I hear starvation is _very _painful so I swallow down my hesitation and say to her.

"I think we should raid the apartments. The only problem is that we don't really have anything to fight the inferi if we run in to them" I finish. Well we do have some things but will they really help.

She pauses before answering. For a second I think she might be taking this seriously but I shouldve learned from last time "For a smart person you're pretty stupid." she says like its her favorite line. Before I can retort she says

"there's plenty of stuff we can use, knives, pillows, a broom handle can be used as a spear if we sharpen it, and even if we can't, hollow metal can probably dent a few skulls. But there's no need for that. Wait here." she finishes leaving me standing there, feeling like an idiot. Of course, I considered it but I didn't think knives would be enough to kill one of those things. By watching the army its obvious those things don't feel pain and don't stop until its dead or its prey is. The only way to kill them is by killing the brain but every time I see it happening is with a gun. Is a knife really going to be enough?

Meghe comes back after I finish repairing my ego carrying a small briefcase roughly the size of a box of cereal.

Before I can I ask about it she plops down on floor sitting cross legged in front of me as she opens the case. Black styrofoam is surrounding a gun of some type, nothing like I've ever seen before, above it a box advertising over 100 bullets in bright red text, two vacant magazines sit to the left of both.

The gun itself looks like one of those WW2 Nazi pistols that I have no idea what its called, only its more...modern? There's no other way to describe it. Instead of black iron it has sleek steel barrel much bigger than normal and a polished wooden grip.

Meghe picks it up in one hand and points at the window across the room, gangster style. I crouch down a little because even though the safety is clearly on, I don't trust her at all.

"This baby's a browning buckmark, one of the most powerful pistols in the world. Powerful in the sense that it could take down 3 people in the span of 5 seconds and have time to fit another kill in between." she gloats happily, as she continues to point at random objects around the room.

"Have you ever shot it before? For that matter, have you ever shot _any_ gun before?" I ask, ducking as she swings the gun over my head to point at the light in the kitchen.

"Nope!" she replies easily making a show of fake recoil as she pretends to shoot.

"Well we can't use it, only in emergencies. You see how there attracted to sound after all. And besides, do you have anything for me to use?" I point out

For that she stands up again but not before putting the gun back into is outline. She goes back to her room and minutes later comes back with a grocery bag. She ignores me for the moment and instead walks past me to the kitchen, and proceeds to rummage around for something. When it seems she has everything she needs, she comes back, sitting on the opposite side of the briefcase, and lays down an assortment of knives in front of me clearly asking which one I want. I picked one of the smaller knives because bigger ones will slow me down and be a nuisance, don't want to stab myself accidentally, besides I figured it's probably enough to scramble inferi brains. It around 5 inches long and Half an inch wide. Meghe picks a bigger one around 8 inches long and 1 inch wide. For a minute we both grab our knives by the handle and stab at invisible foes.

Once we've got our knives and one's were done slashing at invisible enemies, she pulls out something from her bag and tosses them both in my lap. Picking up the first item I inspect it closely, it appears to be a small pouch, slightly bigger than a baseball, made of synthetic leather, opening it reveals it to be filled with metal beads. Slightly confused I inspect the second item which appears to be a slingshot. The slingshot has a plastic handle with rubber grips while the sling is made from a hollow rubber tube while something elastic runs through it. It's clearly well worn but also well loved.

My eyes widen at the implications of this gift. "you want _me _to use this?" I ask incredulously. She bobs her head once and I continue" B-but I've only ever used a slingshot _Once_ and it was for a weekend outing!" I went with my grandma and some of her younger friends. A man in his fifties brought me a slingshot to use and I enjoyed it immensely even though I was a terrible shot. I never got to keep it though and like I said, im a terrible shot.

She huffs

"Got any better ideas?" she asks staring at me.

At my stunned silences she says "well lets get packing"

What followed was a ten minute session where we checked, double checked, and made sure we had everything for our apartment raids.I ended up with my kitchen knife strapped to a fashionable women's embroidery jeans with my slingshot in my leather jackets overly large pocket.(Meghe said she wanted to make sure we had defensive gear but I'm pretty sure she just wanted dress me up.) In place of leg armor I got knee pads. Also adorning my vogue worthy outfit was a bicycle helmet for 'added protection'.

While I looked ridiculous so did meghe. She wore a winter coat that we took the stuffing out of and had the other pair of elbow pads strapped over it. She wore two pairs of sweatpants with her knife hidden in between the folds. Her gun was also somewhere on her body but when I asked where, she said it was a secret.

Even if we looked stupid I felt cool. I'm going into the outside world for the first time in months and I have my survival gear to show for it. All in all I was pretty confident stepping through that front door.

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The apartments weren't as deadly as we thought. I was expecting at least one inferi per room what with at least one person living in them once upon a time, but no such thing happened. If anything the rooms were safer than if there had been a person living in them. Abandoned that's what they were. I should have seen it coming.

In the early days when the army was still trying to control things, there were no screams of terror coming from this building when things _really_ started to break down. No sounds of struggling, movement, shuffling, anything at all to say that inferi were here.

It's clear what happened. The army started to lose control, so these people packed their things and left. Their fates to be determined on the road. And pack they did.

In each apartment there was only barely enough food for one person. The people that left were _very_ thorough. Most of the food in the fridge was spoiled so we didn't even bother to check most of the time, while the cabinets were stripped clean. Though through searching the entire house we could consistantly find a granola bar or two and maybe even a can of beans occasionally. The best loot we've got so far from one apartment is 4 cans of soup and a box of granola bars, the owner left in a rush.

Two weeks after raiding and there was only one apartment left. But luckily we've got enough food to last a week if we try hard, so there's no need to raid it just yet. But who knows when we might need it.

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**Eghgb okay so I know last time I said they might meet the main characters. But I Couldn't fit it in this one. Don't worry because the next one is dedicated with them meeting the characters. Also I was going to say the age of the characters in the next one but since someone asked i'll say there late teens 16-17. I know super cliche but I think I can make it work.**


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